This summer has been filled with friends’ 21st birthdays. Besides being suckered into going out to bars more than I probably should, I have also been consuming ridiculous amounts of junk food and desserts at all of these birthdays. I have had baked mac ‘n’ cheeses, spinach artichoke dip, ice cream cake, way too much hummus (recipe coming soon!) and this lovely champagne cake.

It was recently one of my best friend, Kevin’s, 21st birthday. We have been friends since the 6th grade, so I felt the need to bake him very special birthday treats! I don’t really like to mess with all sorts of baking flour, so I just bought packaged cupcake mix. I think that you can still get creative by making your own frosting and adding your own twist to cupcakes- such as filling them with little tasty surprises like cookie dough and raspberries!

These cupcakes were devil’s food cupcakes with a homemade buttercream frosting that is to die for. For an extra treat, I cut out a small circle of each and filled half of the cupcakes with cookie dough and the other half with raspberries and strawberry syrup. These cupcakes are easy to make for those of you who don’t feel that you are a baking expert, but still are a bit above your average cupcake.